Anyone from Basildon is invited to South Stoke tomorrow to the drop in Network Rail is organising for local villages. The meeting will take place at the village hall, Cross Keys Road, South Stoke, Oxon, RG8 0JT (a field will be open for parking nearby). This will be an important source of information for people producing local newsletters for their communities.

Save Goring Gap are a group of concerned residents and conservationists in Goring and South Stoke who are working to protect the Goring Gap and two AONB's, including Basildon, Pangbourne, Cholsey and others from the devastating adverse visual impact that Network Rail is causing with its inappropriate, overhead electrification design (photographs, and full information including a petition is available at www.savegoringgap.org.uk). Save Goring Gap fully supports modernisation of the railway, but not the method being used in the AONB's. Network Rail is now starting to listen to our concerns and is planning to begin a consultation period early next year. It has also confirmed that it will retrofit a more sympathetic design for the length of track passing through the Chilterns and North Wessex Downs AONB's if the public demands it in sufficient numbers. This is a major concession, but with caveats so it requires you to act quickly to make your views known.